BAGHDAD, 14 July 2005 — Thirty-two children were killed yesterday when a suicide bomber blew up his car near US soldiers as they handed out candies in a Baghdad neighborhood.
Another 31, mostly children, were also wounded in the blast, while a US soldier died and three were injured, hospital and US sources said.
Baghdad’s Kindi Hospital said it received 25 bodies while Ibn Al-Nafis said it received seven. Both said all of the dead were under the age of 15 except for one 18-year-old.
Terrified parents heard the shattering explosion and raced outside their homes in the Shiite neighborhood of east Baghdad to discover the worst — mangled, bloodied bodies of their children strewn about the street.
A pile of children’s slippers lay near the blast crater in the blood-spattered street after the gruesome attack.
It was the second major suicide bombing in Baghdad this week. A suicide bomber killed 25 people Sunday at an army recruiting center. One victim was a four-day old infant, who was slightly cut by flying glass and debris, neighbors said.
The bomber used a brown Toyota Land Cruiser with a license plate from the southern city of Basra, police said.
“There were some American troops blocking the highway when a US Humvee came near a gathering of children,” said Karim Shukir, 42. “US soldiers began to hand them candies. Then suddenly, a speeding car with the bomber showed up and struck both the Humvee and the children.”
“The car bomber made a deliberate decision to attack one of our vehicles as the soldiers were engaged in a peaceful operation with Iraqi citizens,” said Maj. Russ Goemaere, a spokesman for Task Force Baghdad. “The terrorist undoubtedly saw the children around the Humvee as he attacked. The complete disregard for civilian life in this attack is absolutely abhorrent.”
Following yesterday’s bombing, which occurred about 10:50 a.m., charred remains of an engine block wrapped in barbed wire sat in the road. A child’s bicycle was crumpled beside the street, which was splattered with pools of blood. US and Iraqi troops in the area broadcast messages in Arabic by loudspeakers after the attack, warning Iraqi civilians not to approach military vehicles.
An elderly woman dressed in traditional black beat her chest in front of her house in grief. Others meandered about in the broiling heat, inspecting the damage to their homes.
In a separate attack yesterday, a roadside bomb exploded near an American patrol in eastern Baghdad, killing a 7-year-old child and seriously wounding a woman, police said. At least three Iraqi soldiers were killed in two shootouts in western Baghdad.
Two Iraqi civilians were killed and seven injured yesterday in a mortar attack in Iraq’s third largest city, Mosul, the US military said.
Bodies of 11 Sunni men were found yesterday hours after they were arrested by Iraqi security forces, two Sunni organizations said. Sunnis claimed the men were victims of government brutality against their community, which forms the core of the insurgency.
